Trump acquitted of impeachment charges

After U.S President Trump had been accused of withholding 400 million dollars worth of funds from the U.S. Congress that was allocated to the Ukraine as well as investigating 2020 election candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump. In turn, the Senate debated for nearly two weeks on whether or not to impeach or acquit the President. On Feb. 5, the Senate voted to acquit the president, Trump was also found not guilty of the charges against him which were, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. During the Senate trial, the Senate had blocked documents that were subpoenaed by the Democrats. The Senate also voted to block outside witnesses. After the Senate vote on Feb. 5, President Trump is able to remain in office and exercise power the same way he had before his impeachment.

On Dec. 18, 2019, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump 21-17 on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Specifically, Trump was accused of pressuring Ukraine to gather information regarding 2020 Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden’s, membership on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukranian oil and natural gas company that had been previously involved in corruption. He had also been accused of withholding $400 million worth of aid to Ukraine that had already been assigned by congress. 

In a now publicized phone call that took place on July 25 to Ukranian President Zelensky, Trump inquired about a prosecutor in Ukraine and asked if Zelensky could speak to the prosecutor regarding Biden and his son, as reported by CBS. 

On  Sept. 24, 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that a formal impeachment investigation would be conducted. After many roadblocks, such as missing deadlines to subpoena witnesses and the White House refusing the impeachment investigation, the House judiciary committee voted to approve the articles of impeachment on Dec. 13, making Trump the third president to be impeached by the House.

The Senate trial to convict Trump followed but failed to obtain the two-thirds majority vote needed to remove Trump from office. Some shocking events during the Senate trial, which took place on Jan. 17 and ended on Feb. 5, were that numerous Republicans commented that Trump’s conduct towards Ukraine were “inappropriate”. One event in particular was that Senator Mitt Romney voted against his party, to convict Trump on the grounds of abuse of power. Romney was also the only Republican to do so.  

In Montgomery County, many students feel that Trump’s impeachment and acquittal will play an important role in current party politics but not necessarily in the upcoming presidential election. “It might not change how anyone votes, but Trump will always be one of just a handful of presidents who have been impeached, and that was a victory for the Democrats, even if he ultimately was acquitted. For his supporting base, I think it has the opposite effect; his acquittal reinforces the idea that he’s invincible to attacks from the Democratic establishment,” Springbrook senior Emily Klien-Luce said.

Likewise, Springbrook freshman Ruhama Edinshaw feels that the impeachment process would not greatly affect Trump’s polling numbers. “I am sure he has lost a few supporters here and there but overall this impeachment won’t affect him as much as people would assume since he has strong supporters,” Edinshaw said.

When asked for final statements regarding the situation surrounding Trump’s impeachment Klien-Lucdiscussed how she felt about Trump’s impeachment and how she feels Trump should have been held responsible for his actions,  saying, “I firmly believe that too much pressure is being put in removing just Trump from office. All the prejudice Trump is accused of- racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, etc, didn’t begin with him and they won’t end once he leaves office either. We have to hold every president and elected official responsible, not just him, and we can’t become complacent once he’s gone.”

When the same question was posed to Edinshaw, she discussed how she felt about the overall trial as well as what she thought the overall goal of the democrats were, saying, “To me it felt very predictable. I think the Democrats were really trying to get him impeached but it felt more political in a way that they just wanted to hurt his campaign which in all honesty is very understandable.

President Trump will be the third president to have gone through the impeachment process but will be the first president to be impeached (by the House) so close to his campaign for re-election.

Article by Hallie Rozario of Springbrook High School

Graphic by Katherine Hua of Robert Frost Middle School